Network based voice mail with call screening

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network based voice mail system that includes advantages of traditional answering machines. When a call comes in that is not answered, a Remote Answering Device may pick up after a preselected number of rings and play a prerecorded greeting that is stored locally and then prompt the caller to wait for the beep. The Remote Answering Device may use three-way calling service to conference the user&#39;s voice mail number into the call. When a conference call is established it plays the beep and then plays the message which is being recording live on the speaker. If a call is received by the network based voice mail system that did not first pass through the Remote Answering Device, the network based voice mail system may synchronize the Remote Answering Device with the network based voice mail system.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/040,668 filed 18 Mar.1998.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to voice mail systems, and moreparticularly to network based voice mail systems.

Network based voice mail systems offer a number of interestingadvantages compared to traditional answering machine devices, forexample, better voice quality, better reliability, the possibility ofleaving messages without disturbing recipients by ringing their phone,notification (e.g., pager) or alternative message retrieval (e.g., froma personal computer).

Network based voice mail is furthermore a prerequisite for unifiedmessaging, which requires a single point access to voice mail,electronic mail (e-mail) and fax. These advantages are not onlyinteresting for customers but also for service providers who can sellmore and provide better services.

Despite these advantages and despite several attempts from the localtelephone companies, network based voice mail to date has not had muchsuccess with home customers, even if the service was offered free ofcharge! According to one survey, the primary reason for this, is theinability to screen calls before answering them. Caller ID devices donot compensate for the loss in case of home usage for several reasons.For one, caller ID devices only show who is calling but give noindication of the purpose of the call. Knowing what the caller wants isimportant to decide whether or not to answer the call. Moreover, callerID information is not always available and the caller ID display cannotbe read from a distance. To view the display, one would have to walk upto the phone—an activity which is bothersome and which may interruptone's dinner or other leisure activity.

Other reasons for not using network based voice mail are the lack of amessage indicator and the increased complexity for retrieving voice mailfrom a network (e.g., no simple “play” button).

One attempt to solve this problem is a product known as Solo-Point,which can be found on the World Wide Web at www.solopoint.com. Thisdevice uses three-way calling to conference in a network based voicemail system with a local device that plays the incoming message toenable a user to screen calls. This enables a user to screen calls witha network based voice mail system. Unfortunately, this product is unableto stay in synchronization with the network based voice mail system, inthat it cannot always correctly indicate the number of telephonemessages in the network based voice mail system because calls that donot pass through this product are not logged by it. This can occur ifthe telephone line is busy, or the network based voice mail system isaccessed directly by a caller. As a result, messages could exist in thenetwork based voice mail system, while the Solo-Point device indicatesthere are no messages waiting to be played.

The present invention is therefore directed to the problem of developinga network based voice mail system that enables the user to screen calls,yet accurately indicates the number of messages in the network basedtelephone system and is as easy to use as conventional telephoneanswering machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention solves this problem by providing a remoteanswering device that is coupled to the network based voice mail systemthrough the telephone network using three-way calling, which remoteanswering device includes a speaker that enables the user to screencalls and a series of keys to access the network based voice mailsystem, and a paging device disposed in the network based voice mailsystem that contacts the remote answering device when the network basedvoice mail system receives a message that it identifies as not havingpassed through the remote answering device.

According to the present invention a network based voice mail apparatusincludes a network based voice mail system with a user voice mail box,at least one remote answering device coupled to a user's incomingtelephone line, and a telephone network providing three-way callingservice, wherein the remote answering device answers an incoming callafter a predetermined number of rings, and conferences in the user'svoice mail box in the network based voice mail system using thethree-way calling service of the telephone network. In addition, theapparatus includes a paging device that determines that a call wasreceived by the network based voice mail system without simultaneouslypassing through the remote answering device, which pages the remoteanswering device and updates the message counter.

Furthermore, the present invention also includes a remote answeringdevice, for use in a network based voice mail system wherein a uservoice mail box is accessible over a telephone network via apredetermined telephone number and an optional predetermined accesscode. This device includes a modem (as used herein, modem refers to anytelephone/network interface device, either analog or digital) capable ofanswering an incoming call upon detecting a predetermined number ofrings, dialing the user's voice mail box using a three-way callingservice and conferencing the incoming call with the user's voice mailbox, a memory for storing the predetermined telephone number and theoptional predetermined access code, and a processor for controlling themodem and passing the predetermined telephone number and optionalpredetermined access code from the memory to the modem. In addition, thedevice includes a paging receiver that receives a page from the networkbased voice mail system when a message enters the network based voicemail system without previously having passed through the device. Theprocessor then updates the message counter based on the page received bythe paging receiver.

According to the present invention, a method for enabling screening ofcalls by a network based voice mail system, includes the steps of: a)monitoring an incoming call to determine whether the call is not beinganswered by a user; b) answering the incoming call if the user does notanswer; c) playing a greeting for the caller; d) conferencing in theuser's network based voice mail system; e) recording a message using thenetwork based voice mail system while simultaneously playing the messageover a speaker disposed in the user's location; and f) paging a remoteanswering device if a call is received by the user's network based voicemail system without simultaneously passing through the remote answeringdevice.

In this method according to the present invention, one particularlyuseful embodiment includes the steps of: f) sensing with the remoteanswering device when a call is not answered and right after theincoming call has been forwarded to the voice mail system placing a callto the voice mail system itself; and g) conferencing the call from theremote answering device with the incoming call forwarded to the networkbased voice mail system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 depicts one embodiment of the exterior of the Remote AnsweringDevice according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of the Remote Answering Device accordingto the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention presents a solution for providing network basedvoice mail without the loss of any of the advantages of traditionalanswering machines. It does require the installation of a small deviceat the telephone site, which looks like an answering machine and costsabout the same. In addition, the present invention uses three-waycalling service, which is currently available in most places. There is,however, no requirement for changing or reprogramming the local switch,which can be a significant expense, other than providing a paging deviceat the network based voice mail system. Any service provider can offerthe voice mail service without requiring intervention of the localtelephone service provider.

FIG. 1 depicts the system 10 of the present invention. A RemoteAnswering Device 1 is connected in parallel with the telephone(s) 2inside one's home 3 to the Local Service Provider 4 via the localtelephone line 5. The Local Service Provider 4 connects the RemoteAnswering Device 1 to a Network Based Voice Mail System 6 via thetelephone network 7. The Network Based Voice Mail System 6 is alsoconnected to the Internet 8, which has a Web Site 9 via which the usercan access using a Web Browser 11 running on the user's PersonalComputer 13 to review the messages in the user's Voice Mail Box 12 inthe Network Based Voice Mail System 6. Each of these elements andinterfaces will now be described in more detail.

Remote Answering Device

Turning to FIG. 2, shown is the Remote Answering Device 1, which looksjust like an ordinary answering machine. It has a speaker 21, a messagenumber indicator 22 and basic play back control buttons, such as “play”23, “stop” 24, “delete” 25, “record” 26, “skip” 27, “fast” 28, “slow”29, “save” 30, “rewind” 31, etc. The Remote Answering Device 1 may ormay not have a normal telephone built in. The Remote Answering Device 1plugs into a normal telephone jack 32, and may include a second RJ-11jack 33 and is powered by a normal 120 V electrical outlet 34. Inaddition, the Remote Answering Device 1 includes a number keypad 35 forentering in the telephone number of the user's voice mail system, andfor entering in security codes for accessing the network based voicemail system 6, if desired. For the customer, there is no visibledifference from a normal answering machine. Throughout this document thedevice will be called the “Remote Answering Device.”

Turning to FIG. 3, shown therein is a block diagram of the RemoteAnswering Device 1. The telephone line 4 passes to a modem 36 via theRJ-11 jacks 32, 33, which modem 36 is connected to a processor 37, thatcontrols the operation of the Remote Answering Device 1. The processor37 is also connected to a memory 38, the control keys 23-31, the messageindicator 22, the keypad 35, and a power converter 47, which convertsthe 120 V power to 5 V power, for example. The power converter 47 alsoprovides 5V power to the modem 36, an optional pager 39, and memory 38and is connected to the electrical outlet 34. The memory 38 stores thelocal greeting and also stores the access telephone numbers and securitycodes necessary to access the network based voice mail system 6.

Answering a Call

When a telephone call comes in which is not answered by a human, theRemote Answering Device 1 picks up after a preselected number of rings.The Remote Answering Device 1 will then play a greeting, which isprerecorded and stored locally (in the memory 38) and will then promptthe caller to wait for a beep. The Remote Answering Device 1 then usesthe three-way calling service to conference the user's voice mail number(predetermined by the Network Based Voice Mail System and provided tothe user by the three-way calling service provider, which is usually theLocal Service Provider 4) into the call by sending a hook flash signaland speed dialing the user's voice mail number, which was previouslyentered into the memory 38 by the user using the keypad 35. Thisconference call takes only about three seconds. When a conference callis established, it plays the beep and then records the message, which isalso being played live on the speaker 21 in the user's home. The callercan skip the greeting by pressing any button (or a predetermined buttonsuch as the “#” key), as with most traditional answering machines.

When the User Picks Up During Recording or Greeting

After answering a call, the Remote Answering Device 1 constantlymonitors the impedance of the telephone line 4 to detect if any of theextension phones is being picked up. If an extension is picked up, theRemote Answering Device 1 drops the conference call by sending anotherhook flash signal and hangs up. A hook flash signal will drop the lastentrant to a conference call, so no modification to the switch (notshown) at the local service provider 5 is necessary. The user can thentalk normally with the caller.

Message Indicator and Playback of Messages

Since the Remote Answering Device 1 answers all incoming calls, theRemote Answering Device 1 knows how many messages have been left and canindicate this number on the message indicator display 22. The user canpress a simple “play” button 23 to play back the messages. The RemoteAnswering Device 1 will automatically call up the user's voice mail box12 and start playing the messages. Again, this takes no more than threeseconds. Other buttons like “skip” 27, “delete” 25, “fast” 28, “slow” 29etc. can be added. They act as remote controls for the voice mail box12.

If users wish to retrieve messages from outside home they can call theirhome number, wait till the greeting is over or skip it and, whenconnected with the network mail box 12, enter their PIN code to accesstheir messages. This procedure is, again, no different than with anormal answering machine. The Remote Answering Device 1 monitors thissession to know how many messages have been deleted and how many havebeen left. It may even count how many old and how many new messages arecurrently present in the voice mail box 12.

If, in a future service, the user deletes messages from access pointsother than a telephone, e.g., a computer, then the message indicator 22of the Remote Answering Device 1 might still indicate messages, which,in reality, have already been deleted. One touch of the “play” button23, however, will synchronize the display.

One possible embodiment for realizing this is sending data over voice,i.e., the Remote Answering Device 1 queries the Network Based Voice MailSystem 6 to determine the number of messages to play, whichautomatically synchronizes the Remote Answering Device 1 with theNetwork Based Voice Mail System 6, at least with regard to the number ofmessages to play. The Network Based Voice Mail System 6 then transmitsthe number of messages remaining while simultaneously transmitting thevoice messages (thus, data over voice). While the basic concept of thepresent invention requires no modifications to the local switch orNetwork Based Voice Mail System 6, this capability will require amodification to the existing Network Based Voice Mail System 6.

Alternatively, the Network Based Voice Mail System 6 could append thedata at the end of the voice messages, which would not require the morecomplex data over voice technology. As this data would not require morethan a couple of bits, it could easily be sent either before or afterother messages.

Likewise, if messages are delivered by other ways than calling theuser's phone number, then the message indicator 22 of the RemoteAnswering Device 1 might miss calls. This is for instance the case, whena caller directly calls the user's voice mail box number 12 to leave amessage without disturbing the recipient. Again, the display will besynchronized with one touch of the “play” button.

The Remote Answering Device 1 can be set to periodically call in to thevoice mail box 12 to synchronize its message indicator, for example fourtimes an hour. Each such call will be less than 5 seconds in total.

Alternatively, the Network Based Voice Mail System 6 can page the RemoteAnswering Device 1 indicating the presence of a call that entered themail box without going through the Remote Answering Device 1. This isaccomplished by including a pager 39 in the Remote Answering Device 1.Simply paging the Remote Answering Device 1 when a message enters theNetwork Based Voice Mail System 6 without passing through the RemoteAnswering Device 1 would ensure that the two mail boxes remain insynchronization with regard to the number of messages in the voice mailbox 12.

Multiple Mail Boxes

Certain answering machines offer multiple mail boxes. The greetingusually prompts a user to press 1 to leave a message for person A, topress 2 for person B, etc. The Remote Answering Device can offer thesame service. It senses which number was pressed and then calls up thatperson's voice mail number or a default voice mail box (if no button waspressed) to record the message. The individual members of a householdneed not even be on the same voice mail system.

Invention Specific Advantages

Besides the well-known advantages of network based voice message systemsthere are a few more advantages which are specific for the use with aRemote Answering Device.

Multiple Homes

People who have multiple telephones in different locations, forinstance, a vacation home or a private office, can use multiple RemoteAnswering Devices but need only one network based voice mail service.All messages will go to the same place but any of the Remote AnsweringDevices are able to access and play back all messages. So, a call tohome when a user is on vacation will go to the user's voice mail box 12,and a call to the user's vacation home will also go to the same voicemail box 12 if unanswered. This enables the user to listen to allmessages without calling the voice mail at home, at the office, at thecellular service, and at the vacation home, for example.

Wireless Voice Mail

Customers with mobile phones need only to subscribe to no answer/busyforward service instead of a full voice mail service. They can thenforward unanswered calls to their home voice mail number. Without losingany of the features of a mobile voice mail service (except notificationwhich could be offered by our service as well) they get the additionaladvantage of being notified of wireless messages when entering the homeand being able to play them in an uncomplicated easy way Oust press the“play” button on the Remote Answering Device).

It is possible to create a mobile version of the Remote Answering Devicethat one could carry to enable one to access and play back messages toone's home phone or any other telephone.

Higher Reliability

A power outage at home will not erase any messages, because the messagesare stored at the Network Based Voice Mail System 6. Alternatively, themessages could be stored in both places to ensure redundancy (or backup)for very important messages. In this case, the Remote Answering Device 1would then access the Network Based Voice Mail System 6 and indicatethat the messages were played to the user, thereby indicating to deletethe messages. Or, the user could simply replace a tape in the RemoteAnswering Device 1, thereby enabling archival of the messages. In thiscase, the playback would occur in the normal manner, as described above.

Furthermore, the user can advise the local telephone company to forwardthe calls on no answer/busy directly to the voice mail number. Inaddition, it is possible for the Network Based Voice Mail System 6 tonotify the caller that the call to the home phone did not go throughbecause the line is busy or down. Because the message that is played bythe Network Based Voice Mail System 6 is different than the messageplayed by the Remote Answering Device 1, the message could indicate thatthe call did not go through. To indicate that the line was down wouldrequire some reprogramming at the local switch; however, it would enablea caller to attempt to reach the user by another means to let the userknow the line is down or his equipment is malfunctioning. This could bean additional service provided by the local service provider.

If a call arrives during a power outage, then the caller is still ableto leave a message. To accomplish this, the number of rings set by thelocal telephone company before forwarding the call must be higher thanthe number of rings set by the Remote Answering Device.

Record Messages When the Line is Busy

The same no answer/busy forward feature described above can be used forcallers to leave messages when the line is busy, so no calls are missed.Using the caller ID information the voice mail system can determinewhere the call is coming from and play a greeting accordingly, e.g.,“the line is currently busy, please leave a message.” Even though usersdon't know immediately that a call came while they were on the phone,they will know a few minutes later, after the Remote Answering Devicesynchronizes with the voice mail system the next time.

Compatibility with Existing Voice Mail Systems

An important property of the Remote Answering Device is that it workswith any existing or future voice mail system. There is no majordevelopment work necessary on the network side of the service.

Synchronization of the Message Indicator

The synchronization of the message indicator requires data to beexchanged between the Remote Answering Device and the Network BasedVoice Mail Service. It can be done by sending data over voice. This isstandard technology but currently not supported by voice mail systems.If it is not supported, then the message indicator might be out ofsynchronization when message traffic bypasses the Remote AnsweringDevice, e.g., when the voice mail number is called directly to leave amessage or retrieve and delete messages.

As described above, it is possible to accomplish this using pagingtechnology, as well.

Erasing Calls which have Been Intercepted

When an extension phone is picked up at home during the recording of amessage, the Remote Answering Device drops the connection to the voicemail system and lets the user talk to the caller. A standard voice mailsystem will not know the difference between a full message and a messagewhich has been intercepted and will therefore keep all interceptedmessages. The Remote Answering Device sends a few bits of data to thevoice mail system before disconnecting the line to indicate whether thecall has been intercepted or not. If the voice mail system is able toread this data it can erase intercepted messages which is what the userexpects to happen.

Local and Network Stored Greetings

Normally the Remote Answering Device plays the greeting which is storedlocally. It could be network based but then a caller needs to wait forabout three seconds before being connected to the network. On the otherhand, if a call gets forwarded directly to the voice mail box (e.g., theline is busy), then the network needs to play the greeting. Withstandard voice mail systems this leads to two greetings being played insequence for normal calls. If the voice mail system detects where thecall is coming from, it can either play its own greeting or not play agreeting at all if the call comes from the Remote Answering Device. Thisalso allows for different greetings for no answer or busy situations.

Alternatively, the Remote Answering Device could disable the greeting bysending the appropriate signal (such as, for example, the particularDialed Tone Multiple Frequency, DTMF, signal for the # key) over theline. This would skip the greeting and immediately play the beep toindicate to the caller to begin recording the message.

Implementation

The Network Side

As mentioned earlier, the network side of the service requires either nochange at all or only minor changes which can be incorporated into theexisting software. The only consideration is adding a modem for sendingdata over voice to each telephone line.

The Remote Answering Device

The Remote Answering Device not only looks like but is also built verymuch like a traditional answering machine. The basic differences are:

The capability to send and receive data over voice.

The capability to send hook flash and touch tone signals.

The play back buttons act as a remote control for dialing into the voicemail system and sending touch tone commands to it.

The recording and playing of the greeting is local.

The Remote Answering Device should be able to work with all voice mailservices offered on the market. The specific touch tone sequences forplay, delete, skip, etc. which need to be known in order to make thebuttons on the Remote Answering Device work can be stored in a smallmemory. It is possible for the Remote Answering Device to sense whichservice it connects to (e.g., by listening for specific tones) or theuser can select the specific service he or she is using with a dipswitch (similar to selecting a TV product on a universal remotecontrol).

Furthermore, the present invention is applicable to company based voicemail systems, i.e., voice mail systems that operate on a customerpremises or on customer premises equipment (CPE). In this case, theremote answering device connects to the telephone outlet as describedabove, and conferences in the company based voice mail system ratherthan the network based voice mail system. As dialing within a companybased telephone system is usually simpler, this should work slightlyfaster than the network based version. All the above describedprocedures and embodiments apply in a similar manner though.

Alternative Implementations

Conference Call Initiated from the Network

The user subscribes to the no answer/busy forward feature of the localtelephone company. Unanswered calls are redirected to the voice mailservice. When the service receives a call, it will automatically callback the user's home and conference it in to the call. The RemoteAnswering Device detects that the call is coming from the voice mailsystem by looking at the caller ID information and answers the callimmediately and puts it on the speaker phone.

The main problem with this solution is that when a user intercepts andpicks up an extension phone, he or she will be connected to the callingparty through the voice mail system and two of its phone lines will bebusy for the duration of the call (which can be an hour or more, versusa few minutes at the most for leaving a message). This will make therequired hardware on the network side more expensive. Furthermore, it isno longer compatible with standard voice mail systems.

Conference Call Initiated from Home

Alternatively, the Remote Answering Device could sense when a call isnot answered and right after it has been forwarded to the voice mailsystem place a call to the voice mail system itself However, thissolution has the same down sides as the above alternative.

1. A voice mail system comprising: a network based voice mail system including a user voice mail box; a remote answering device coupled to a user's incoming telephone line; a telephone network that is to provide a three-way calling service, wherein the remote answering device answers an incoming call after a predetermined number of rings, and conferences in the user's voice mail box in the network based voice mail system using the three-way calling service of the telephone network; and a synchronization device that is to synchronize a network message count indicating a number of messages in the user's voice mail box, with a remote answering device message count at the remote answering device when a message is received at the user's voice mail box that has not been received at the remote answering device.
 2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising: an Internet interface via which a user can access the user voice mail box.
 3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the Internet interface comprises a World Wide Web site that the user can access using a personal computer running a Web browser to review messages in the user's voice mail box in the network based voice mail system.
 4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of remote answering devices, each disposed at different locations and different incoming telephone lines, wherein each of the plurality of remote answering devices accesses the same user's voice mail box.
 5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a wireless remote answering device being couplable to the network based voice mail system via a wireless communications network and including command functionality similar to the remote answering device coupled to the user's incoming telephone line.
 6. A remote answering device comprising: a modem that is to answer an incoming call upon detecting a predetermined number of rings, dial a user's voice mail box in a network based voice mail system using a three-way calling service and conference the incoming call with the user's voice mail box; a memory that is to store a local greeting that is played to a caller while the user's mail box in the network based voice mail system is being conferenced; and a paging receiver that is to receive a paging signal that indicates that a message exists in the network based voice mail system that was not received by the remote answering device, and to output a numerical code indicating a message count.
 7. The device according to claim 6, further comprising: a speaker coupled to the modem, wherein the modern is to output a voice signal from the incoming call to the speaker.
 8. The device according to claim 6, further comprising: a message number display coupled to the processor displaying a count of the messages in the network based voice mail system, wherein the paging receiver receives a page from the network based voice mail system indicating that a message has been received in the user's voice mail box without passing through the remote answering device, and wherein the paging receiver outputs the message count to the processor which updates the message number display.
 9. The device according to claim 6, wherein the processor that is to detect a change in an impedance of the telephone line which indicates that a telephone extension has been picked up, and wherein the processor is to output a signal to drop the voice mail box from the conference call in response to the change in the detected impedance.
 10. The device according to claim 6, further comprising: a plurality of control buttons coupled to the processor.
 11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of control buttons include at least one selected from the group consisting of play, stop, delete, record, skip, fast, slow, save, and rewind.
 12. The device according to claim 6, further comprising: a telephone built into the device.
 13. The device according to claim 6, further comprising: a number keypad for entering in the predetermined telephone number of the user's voice mail box and for entering in the optional predetermined access codes for accessing the user's voice mail box.
 14. (canceled)
 15. The device according to claim 7, wherein the message being recorded by the caller is simultaneously being played over the speaker.
 16. The device according to claim 6, further comprising. a play button, wherein the processor initiates a call to the user's voice mail box upon the play button being pressed and the processor queries the user's voice mail box to determine how many messages remain in the user's voice mail box, and if different than those contained in a count maintained by the processor, the processor synchronizes its count to that of the user's voice mail box.
 17. The device according to claim 16, wherein the modem receives data from the user's voice mail box while simultaneously receiving voice signals.
 18. The device according to claim 16, wherein the processor periodically calls in to the voice mail box to synchronize its message indicator.
 19. The device according to claim 6, wherein the remote answering device further comprises a tape recorder, which records incoming messages simultaneously along with the network based voice mail system.
 20. The device according to claim 6, wherein the network based voice mail system indicates to a caller that the call to the user did not go through if the call to the user does not get through to the remote answering device.
 21. A method comprising: receiving a call at a remote answering device; establishing a communications bridge between the remote answering device and an Internet accessible voice mail system; after the communications bridge is established, recording a message at the Internet accessible voice mail system; playing the message at the remote answering device as the message is being recorded at the Internet accessible voice mail system; and synchronizing a system message count, indicating a number of messages in the Internet accessible voice mail system, with a device message count at the remote answering device.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprises: recording the message at the remote answering device.
 23. The method of claim 21, further comprises: transmitting a signal to the remote answering device indicating that a message has been recorded in the voice mail system, if the message has not previously passed through the remote answering device.
 24. The method of claim 23, wherein the signal is a paging signal.
 25. The method of claim 24, further comprising: receiving the signal at the remote answering device; updating the device message count at the remote answering device based on the signal received at the remote answering device.
 26. The method of claim 21, further comprises: receiving a request for the message recorded at the Internet accessible voice message system from a user via a World Wide Web site; and transmitting the recorded message to the user in response to the request.
 27. The method claim 21, further comprises: playing a local greeting at the remote answering device while the communications bridge is being established.
 28. A system comprising: a remote answering device that is to receive an incoming call; an Internet accessible voice mail system; a communications bridge established between the remote answering device and the Internet accessible voice mail system, wherein the Internet accessible voice mail system is to record a message after the communications bridge is established and wherein the remote answering device is to play the message as the message is being recorded at the Internet accessible voice mail system; and a synchronizing device that is to synchronize a system message count, indicating a number of messages in the Internet accessible voice mail system, with a device message count at the remote answering device.
 29. The system of claim 28, wherein the synchronizing device comprises: a paging transmitter, coupled to the Internet accessible voice mail system, wherein the paging is to transmit a signal indicating a system message count; a paging receiver coupled to the remote answering device, wherein the paging receiver to receive the signal indicating the system message count.
 30. The system of claim 29, further comprises: an Internet interface, wherein a user can access the message stored at the Internet accessible voice mail system via the Internet accessible voice mail system.
 31. A method comprising: receiving a call at an Internet accessible voice mail system; recording a message at the Internet accessible voice mail system; receiving a query from a remote answering device via a communications bridge established by the remote answering device; transmitting a signal indicating a number of messages recorded at the Internet accessible voice mail system via the communications bridge to the remote answering device in response to the query; and transmitting the message recorded at the Internet accessible voice mail system via the communications bridge to the remote answering device in response to the query.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein the signal indicating the number of messages recorded and the recorded message are transmitted simultaneously to the remote answering device.
 33. The method of claim 31, further comprises: receiving a request for the message recorded at the Internet accessible voice message system from a user via a World Wide Web site; and transmitting the recorded message to the user in response to the request. 